1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an inkjet print head and a manufacturing method thereof, and, more particularly, to an inkjet print head including a path-defining layer in which ink paths are defined and a nozzle-defining layer in which nozzles are defined, and a manufacturing method of the inkjet print head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an inkjet print head is a device to discharge fine droplets of printing ink on a recording medium at desired positions, so as to form an image.
Such an inkjet print head includes a substrate, a surface of which is provided with a discharge-pressure generating element for ink discharge, a path-defining layer which is stacked on the substrate and is defined with ink supply paths, a nozzle-defining layer which is stacked on the path-defining layer and is defined with ink discharge nozzles, and an adhesive layer interposed between the substrate and the path-defining layer to allow the path-defining layer to be stably bonded to the substrate.
Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2005-0112027 relates to a manufacturing method of the above-described conventional inkjet print head. The manufacturing method, disclosed in the above Publication, relates to stacking an adhesive layer on a substrate, patterning the adhesive layer via a photolithography process to provide the adhesive layer with a pattern corresponding to a desired pattern to be formed on a path-defining layer, stacking the path-defining layer on the patterned adhesive layer, patterning the path-defining layer via a photolithography process to define ink paths in the path-defining layer, stacking a nozzle-defining layer on the patterned path-defining layer, and patterning the nozzle-defining layer via a photolithography process to define nozzles in the nozzle-defining layer.
In the above-described conventional inkjet print head, however, formation of the adhesive layer is complicated because the adhesive layer must be patterned via a photolithography process to have a pattern corresponding to a desired pattern to be formed at the path-defining layer. Moreover, patterning the adhesive layer and the path-defining layer via individual photolithography processes dramatically complicates coinciding the pattern formed on the adhesive layer with the pattern formed on the path-defining layer.
Further, the conventional inkjet print head includes a water-repellent layer on a surface of the nozzle-defining layer in order to prevent ink from being attached to the surface of the nozzle-defining layer, and patterning the water-repellent layer to have a same pattern as that of the nozzle-defining layer is very complex and practical application thereof is difficult.